Vietnamese students’ awareness of the fourth industrial revolution an empirical research
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ISSN 1859 0020
Journal of Economics and Development, Vol.21, Special Issue, 2019, pp. 134-152
Vietnamese Students’ Awareness of The
Fourth Industrial Revolution:
An Empirical Research
Tran Thi Van Hoa
National Economics University, Vietnam
Email:
Do Thi Dong
National Economics University, Vietnam
Email:
Received: 22 October 2018 | Revised: 02 January 2019 | Accepted: 07 January 2019
Abstract
This research investigates Vietnamese students’ awareness of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
also called Industry 4.0. The study used a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews. Research
results from 443 Vietnamese students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City show that students’ awareness
of the revolution and capabilities need to improve. Based on data analysis, recommendations are
given to education and training institutions in order to create a skilled and qualified human
resource. Key recommendations are about promoting students’ awareness of Industry 4.0 through
communication, improving students’ IT skills, focusing on English training, improving teachers’
capabilities and enhancing cooperation between training institutions and organizations.
Keywords: Awareness; industry 4.0; soft skills; the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
JEL code: O15.
Journal of Economics and Development
134
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
1. Introduction
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry
4.0) has been recently recognized with significant achievements in physical, digital and biological fields. The application of technologies
in these fields has made the foundation of the
revolution comprehensive, leading to significant and unpredictable changes in the daily
lives of people. Since the pattern of consumption and production has changed, requirements
for the knowledge and skills of workforces
have also changed. Being aware of the revolution and prepared for its requirements is important for labourers, especially for those who
are willing to participate in the labour market in
the near future.
In the case of Vietnam, the impact of Industry 4.0 seems to have become obvious as several enterprises in Southern Vietnam have replaced humans with robots (Vuong Le, 2017).
The need for information technology experts
has increased over time (Huy Phong, 2017).
Smart phones have been becoming familiar to
people in their lives. The usage of the internet
and the world wide web have been increasing
day by day. The way people work in organizations is changing. Being aware of the revolution, thus becomes important for people, especially for students, who are going to apply
for jobs in the near future. Given the fact that
there has not been such a study in Vietnam, this
research tries to explore Vietnamese students’
awareness of the fourth industrial revolution
and their preparation for facing the challenges of the revolution. Based on the analysis of
the future of jobs and new requirements of the
workforce in Vietnam, recommendations are
given to education and training institutions in
Journal of Economics and Development
135
Vietnam in order to create skilled and qualified
human resource.
2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0
The term Industry 4.0 was first introduced
in 2011 at the Hanover Fair in Germany. After that it was officially included in the HighTech Strategy which was adopted in 2012 by
the German government. Germany was the first
country to recognize Industry 4.0 and also the
first to have a strategy to react to the revolution. The objectives of setting an Industry 4.0
strategy are to try to take opportunities as well
as to limit negative impacts of the revolution.
Industry 4.0 has become a common concern
since January 2016 when the World Economic Forum (WEF) was held in Switzerland under the theme “Mastering the Fourth Industrial
Revolution”. At the conference, Klaus Schwab,
founder and executive chairman of the World
Economic Forum introduced his new book The
Fourth Industrial Revolution (WEF, 2016).
Industry 4.0 was created on the base of the
digital revolution, especially the use of the internet. The content of Industry 4.0 is development of the network between real and virtual
worlds based on the internet of things (IoT) and
the internet of systems (IoS). Artificial and decentralized intelligence helps to create a new
aspect of manufacturing systems that is the interaction between the real and virtual worlds.
Industry 4.0 refers to the technological evolution from embedded systems to cyber-physical systems. In other words, it represents the
revolution on the way to an internet of things,
data and services. With application of these
technologies, industrial production machinery
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
no longer simply “processes” the product, but
the product communicates with the machinery
to tell it exactly what to do (German Trade and
Invest, 2014). In the processes, the machinery
operates based on intelligent communication
and information technology and systems have
the ability to independently communicate and
solve problems.
Major Technologies of Industry 4.0
There are three major technological trends in
Industry 4.0. They belong to the physical, digital and biological fields. In the physical field,
there is an advanced technology well-known
as 3D printing. The technology, also known as
material additive manufacturing is an advanced
development of printing technology which employs a rapid prototyping mode, without mold
making. It helps people to produce complicated
products by adding layer upon layer of material until the whole product is created. 3D printing technology can be applied in such fields as
aerospace, architecture, automotive manufacturing, consumer products, dental, the medical
and health care industry and training and education. Applying 3D printing technologies has
become increasingly popular in the world.
In the digital field, the internet of things, Big
data, artificial intelligence (AI) and Blockchain
are major technologies. Firstly, the internet of
things is an open and complicated system consisting of smart objects that can automatically
organize, share information, data and resources
and react to responses and changes in the environment. IoT is one such technology that can
be applied to a lot of, or rather almost all, industries. Secondly, according to Mauro1 et al.
(2015), Big data represents information assets
characterized by such a high volume, velociJournal of Economics and Development
136
ty and variety as to require specific technology
and analytical methods for its transformation
into value. Big data can be applied in many
industries. For example, popular applications
are in banking and securities, in insurance,
communications, media and entertainment,
healthcare, education, manufacturing and natural resources, government, retail and wholesale
trade, transportation, energy and utilities. Next,
AI is a science which creates equipment that
can understand people and have intelligent behaviour. In order to have equipment which is as
intelligent as a person, AI is based on six fields
− engineering, maths, computer science, biology, language and psychology. AI can be applied
in many industries such as manufacturing, telecommunications, health care, agriculture and
entertainment, and so on. Lastly, blockchain
is a type of save data transmission technology
in which information is assured not to be reversed and be incorrect (Aaron and Primavera,
2017). In the technological aspect, blockchain
is a digitally engineered background which allows people to store the history of transactions
among users. Applications for blockchain are
cryptocurrency, smart contracts, digital identity, and digital elections.
In the biological field, there are two technological trends including gene and cell technologies. Regarding gene technology, gene
modification allows people to repair and to
eliminate some defective genes such as those
that cause cancer or to choose children’s genes.
With regard to cell technology, original cells
can be used to repair or replace harmed cells
with healthy ones. In addition to that, based on
the two technologies, asexual reproduction can
be created. Applications of biological technolVol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Table 1: Industry 4.0’s requirements for labour
Knowledge/ skill
Explanation
Research
Good knowledge of
information technology
Employees should be masters in working with the
internet, using applications and/ or software.
Employees also should be able to work with big data.
Schwab (2016), Tran and Do
(2016), Kergroach (2017),
Tran (2017), Beyza (2018)
Ability to work with cyberphysical systems
Ability to work with smart objects, to work at any
place and at anytime
Schwab (2016), Tran and Do
(2016), Kergroach (2017),
Tran (2017), Beyza (2018)
Open mind-set and
understanding of customer
requirements
Employees are expected to have qualifications and
ability to understand the products/ services and the
environment.
Beyza (2018)
Ability to communicate in
English
Employees are expected to read, speak, listen and
write in English.
Tran and Do (2016), Nguyen
et al. (2017)
Soft skills
Soft skills such as team work, commutation, strategic
thinking and problem solving, managing change,
creativity and innovation capability, judgement and
decision making.
Schwab (2016), Tran and Do
(2016), Nguyen et al. (2017)
Source: Summarized by the authors.
ogies can help people in growing cells to create
organs to replace damaged ones.
everyone is created and stored. Software can
address, learn and solve problems itself;
By combining the above technologies, the
influence of Industry 4.0 is extremely strong
in people’s lives. According to the survey report by The World Economic Forum, Industry
4.0 has six megatrends that are shaping society
(WEF, 2015).
- The sharing economy and distributed trust:
With the creation of networks, communication becomes easy among people. Assets can
be shared, creating new efficiencies and new
business models and opportunities for social
self-organization. Blockchain technology will
act as a third-party to provide trust for people
to do things;
- People and the internet: People connect
with others through a combination of technologies especially with the wearable internet, connected homes, and implantable technology;
- Computing, communications and storage
everywhere: Ubiquitous computing power is
available. Everyone can access the internet
through a supercomputer in their pocket, with
nearly unlimited storage capacity;
- The Internet of Things: Sensors are being
introduced everywhere. Everything can be connected;
- AI and Big data: Data about everything and
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137
- The digitization of matter: 3D printing creates physical objects. This technology benefits
manufacturing factories and medical organizations. It is also useful for people’s health.
Industry 4.0’s requirements to labour
Industry 4.0’s requirements for labour have
been examined by a number of researches.
Since the revolution is based on digital technology, knowledge of information technology is very important for labour (Tran and Do,
2016). Changes in skill requirements have been
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Table 2: Top ten skills employees needed by 2020
1
Complex problem solving
2
Critical thinking
3
Creativity
4
People management
5
Coordinating with others
Source: WEF (2015).
6
7
8
9
10
more demanded in computerizing occupations
(Beyza, 2018). In various fields such as manufacturing, healthcare, entertainment, government, etc., employees need to have the ability
to work with cyber-physical systems (Tran and
Do, 2016; Beyza, 2018). Other knowledge and
skills are also mentioned. They are listed in Table 1.
measuring awareness, it is important to measure
what respondents know as well as what they
do not know. It requires optimizing responses
based on an individual’s knowledge rather than
by guessing (Ciochetto and Haley, 1995).
In order to thrive with the challenges of Industry 4.0, according to The World Economic
Forum, employees are expected to have the 10
skills in Table 2.
In comparison with the skills that employees needed to have by 2015, two new skills are
now required and these are emotional intelligence and cognitive flexibility. Quality control
and active listening are no longer in the top ten
needed skills. The change results in the need
for labourers, especially for those students who
will apply for a job in the near future, to prepare for enhancing those skills.
2.2. Awareness of Industry 4.0
According to the Oxford advanced learners’
dictionary, awareness is knowledge or perception of a situation or fact. It is an understanding
that something is happening or exists. In other
words, it is the state or quality of being aware
of something. To be aware means to know, to
realize or be interested in knowing something
or to know that something is important. When
Journal of Economics and Development
138
Emotional intelligence
Judgement and decision making
Service orientation
Negotiation
Cognitive flexibility
Awareness can be measured in three dimensions including the breadth and depth of the
subjects and self-knowledge or degree to which
one knows about himself or herself (Renesh,
2018). The breadth of awareness of Industry
4.0 can be explored through whether students
know about the revolution. The depth can be
measured through students’ knowledge of major technologies and their applications. Finally, the self-knowledge can be assessed through
students’ thinking about the revolution’s influences on their job in the future.
This research foundation relies on the theory
of reasoned action and social cognitive theory. Reasoned action theory proposes that individuals consider the consequences or results
of behaviour before performing the particular
behaviour. Intention, thus, is an important factor in determining behaviour and behavioural
change. Intentions develop from an individual’s perception of behaviour as positive or negative together with the individual’s impression
of the way their society perceives the same
behaviour (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Thus,
personal attitudes and social pressure shape inVol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
tention, which is essential to the performance
of a behaviour and consequently behavioural
change.
requirements are given for labour to meet in order to satisfy employers in the future (Flynn et
al., 2017).
Social Learning Theory was proposed in the
1960s by Albert Bandura. It developed into
Social Cognitive Theory in 1986 and stated
that learning occurs in a social context with a
dynamic and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment, and behaviour. People’s behaviour change is affected by environmental
influences, personal factors, and attributes of
the behaviour itself. Personal factors include an
individual’s awareness, feelings, belief, and expectation whereas environment includes both
the physical and social environment.
Taking into account the influence of Industry 4.0 on the future of jobs, based on the reasoned action theory, it is expected that if Vietnamese students are aware of Industry 4.0, they
will prepare for meeting its requirements of
the labour force. Particularly, if students have
knowledge of the revolution (especially major
technologies and their applications), and its expected influences on the future of jobs, leading
to new skills required by labour, they will have
the intention of acquiring the required knowledge and skills. Based on social cognitive theory, if Vietnamese students are aware of Industry 4.0, they know the knowledge and skill
requirements that they have to meet, and it will
certainly drive their belief, expectations, and
feelings toward what they have to do to prepare
for applying for jobs in the future.
A central principle of social cognitive theory
is self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1989),
self-efficacy refers to an individual›s belief
in his or her capacity to execute behaviours
necessary to produce specific performance attainments. A person must believe in his or her
capability to perform the behaviour and must
perceive an incentive to do so.
As mentioned previously, there is evidence
that applications of major technological trends
in the physical, digital and biological fields
cause significant changes in the daily lives of
people. The six megatrends have been shaping
society (WEF, 2015), leading to changes in production and consumption. Application of these
major technologies leads to a reduction in the
need for human labour, especially for unskilled
workers (Do and Truong, 2017; Bonekamp and
Sure, 2017), an increase in demand for new
jobs, especially in the information technology
(IT) field (Do and Truong, 2017; Bonekamp
and Sure, 2017), and changes in the way people
work (Do and Truong, 2017). As a result, new
Journal of Economics and Development
139
2.3. Previous research about Industry 4.0
and awareness of Industry 4.0
The term Industry 4.0 is relatively new to
people as it was first mentioned in the world
seven years ago. However, because of its importance and urgency, some governments immediately had a strategy to deal with its impact,
e.g. the “Industrial value chain idea” of the Japanese government, “Industrial Innovation 3.0”
of Korean government, “Made in China 2025”
of the Chinese government, “Productivity 4.0”
of the Taiwanese government, and so on. Industry 4.0 has become the common concern of
researchers and organizations. Researches have
been conducted with respect to many aspects of
Industry 4.0. Among them, significant consideration is paid to the impacts of Industry 4.0 on
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
production and employment.
The roles and relationships between people
and machines are examined since it is believed
in the future that humans will have less influence on machines or machines will become
more intelligent (The Boston Consulting Group
- BCG, 2015b). Industry 4.0 is expected to have
significant impacts on enterprises’ productivity
(BCG, 2015a). The way to navigate digitalization in the manufacturing sector is mentioned
(McKinsey and Company, 2015). Industry 4.0
was reviewed in its complex aspects (Roblek et
al., 2016) and it was found that the revolution
and Internet-connected technologies are important and do have influence on the creation
of value added for organizations and society.
Besides these researches, some authors also
examined influences of the revolution within
their countries, e.g. such as research and innovation proposals dealing with changes caused
by Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing sector in
Japan (Nagasato and Yoshima, 2016), the operation of stores in Japan under the impact of
Industry 4.0 (Takakuwa, 2016), influences of
Industry 4.0 on the manufacturing sector in
Germany (German Trade and Invest, 2014), or
the potential impact of Industry 4.0 on employment demographics in the United Kingdom
(UK) (Flynn et al., 2017). Engineers’ skills in
the future under the influences of Industry 4.0
are also examined through a questionnaire survey in Italy. The survey highlighted some interesting aspects concerning the Italian students’
digital behaviour and their consideration of the
Industry 4.0 framework (Motyla, 2017). In addition to that, the fourth industrial revolution’s
effects on education and vocational training are
predicted and analysed (Institute of TechnoloJournal of Economics and Development
140
gy Assessment, 2015). It is revealed that new
capabilities and qualifications of human resources will be given preference, especially the
information technology capacity. The preparation for the workforce in general is mentioned
(WEF, 2016), or in a particular country, such as
in China (Andrea, 2016).
Recently, there have been some researches on Industry 4.0 in Vietnam. In 2016, there
was a research investigating characteristics
of Industry 4.0 and proposed implications to
change the education and training policy in
Vietnam (Tran and Do, 2016). The research
focused on the emergence of Industry 4.0 and
how education and training policies in Vietnam
should be changed to react to the revolution.
In 2017, the revolution’s expected influences
on the future of jobs in Vietnam was examined
(Do and Truong, 2017). Another research on
students’ awareness and preparation for meeting the requirements of Industry 4.0 was conducted in 2017 by a group of students in the
National Economics University. Respondents
were 228 students in the economic and business management field. The research revealed
that more than 40% of 228 surveyed students
knew the term Industry 4.0 and about 30% of
them understood about the revolution (Nguyen
et al., 2017). The research came up with some
recommendations for education and training
institutions and students in Vietnam in order to
improve their operation and qualification.
Although the above researches focused on
different aspects of Industry 4.0, authors all
agreed that Industry 4.0 will have significant
impacts on the future of jobs. Education and
training institutions and learners need to identify the revolution’s requirements of the labour
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Table 3: Distribution of observation
Field of study
Number of observations
Natural Science
Social Science
Others
Total
Source: Result of the survey.
154
240
49
443
force in the future so as to create a qualified human resource. In the case of Vietnam, although
there has been a study precisely examining students’ awareness of Industry 4.0, the research
took into account students in the economic and
business management field only. Given the fact
that Industry 4.0 influences are in various fields,
it is necessary to conduct such research in various fields. For that reason, this paper examines
Vietnamese students’ awareness of Industry 4.0
and then gives some recommendations for education and training institutions and students in
order to create a qualified human resource.
3. Research methodology
3.1. Data collection
The overall objective of the study was to
examine Vietnamese students’ awareness of
Industry 4.0. The findings of the research
were completed by applying secondary data
research, a questionnaire survey and in-depth
interviews.
Firstly, a secondary data research was conducted to summarize the technological trends
and the characteristics of Industry 4.0 as well as
to find if there had been any similar research. A
short list of relevant researches was compiled.
Recognizing the research gap, the study came
up with two objectives as follows:
- To examine Vietnamese students’ awareJournal of Economics and Development
141
ness of Industry 4.0.
- To draw conclusions and make some recommendations for higher education and training institutions in order to react to Industry 4.0.
Secondly, a set of semi-structured questionnaires for experts was conducted. The objective of the questionnaires was to explore how
to measure students’ awareness of Industry 4.0.
Three experts in the fields of information technology and biology were invited to be interviewed in March 2017. After analyzing these
data, key questions for assessing students’
awareness were listed.
Thirdly, based on the characteristics and requirements of the revolution, questionnaires
were designed to ask students whether they had
heard of the revolution, what they understood
about it and how they would assess their capability with respect to meeting new requirements set by the revolution. A pilot survey with
55 students in Hanoi was conducted in March
2017. Respondents were students who had
studied in a university for at least 2 years. The
reasons for choosing respondents was to know
how students’ self-studies were after spending
a period of time in university.
Finally, the official survey was conducted in
September to November 2017, with 443 students in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. The two
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
locations were chosen as they are the two largest cities where the largest numbers of universities are located in Vietnam. The distribution of
observations in terms of students’ field of study
is shown in Table 3.
Students were enrolled in eight large universities in Vietnam. Six of the universities were in
Hanoi and the other two in Ho Chi Minh city.
In-depth interviews were implemented with 20
students, 15 in Hanoi and 5 in Ho Chi Minh
City. The objective of the interviews was to
find the reasons the respondents chose the answers they did.
As said previously, the objective of the research was to measure Vietnamese students’
awareness of Industry 4.0. The questionnaire
was divided into 4 parts. The first included
questions to collect general information about
the respondents. The second measured students’ awareness and expectation of the impacts of Industry 4.0. The next part was for
students’ self-assessment of their capability
with respect to meeting requirements set by
the revolution. Some last questions were included to gather students’ opinions about how
they expected their institutions to help them in
improving their capabilities. Questionnaires for
the interview were to learn the reasons for answers given by the students.
3.2. Data processing
There are two sets of data. The first is quantitative data, including all information about the
443 students in Vietnam. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) was used to
analyze the collected data. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables to have a
general screening on the real data set in terms
of frequency, means, variances, etc. The second
Journal of Economics and Development
142
data set includes qualitative data derived from
the in-depth interviews. This data was used to
supplement the quantitative data.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Characteristics of the sample
Approximately 55% of the students were female and nearly 69% of the students were in
their 7th and 8th term of study. The percentage
of students in their 5th and 6th term was 31.8%.
Among the 20 interviewees, 11 students were
female and 12 were in their 7th and 8th term of
study, 5 were in their 9th and 10th term, the rest
were in their 5th and 6th term.
Altogether, nearly 35% of the students were
studying economics business management.
Students studying natural sciences accounted
for 29.1% of the total number and others who
were studying in such fields as foreign languages, information technology and tourism
accounted for the rest of 11.1%. Among the 20
interviewees, 10 students were studying economics and business management and 5 were
studying natural science. In the three fields of
engineering, pedagogy and press, there were
five interviewees.
The grade point average (GPA) of about
60% of the students in the previous term ranged
from 6.5 to 8.0. About 20% of the surveyed students had a GPA from 8.0 to 8.5. Especially, 7%
of the respondents had excellent study results
as their GPAs were higher than 8.5. However,
there were 50 students having GPAs ranging
from 5.0 to 6.5. The GPA of the rest was lower
than 5.0.
4.2. Students’ awareness of Industry 4.0
Among the 443 respondents, 199 of the students had heard the term “Industry 4.0” (45%)
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Figure 1: Students’ awareness of Industry 4.0
Blockchain
56
55
Bigdata and AI
80
62
Development of 3D printing
49
Human can be replaced by robot
54
92
87
Wearable internet
41
44
Everything can be connected
96
47
3 technology trends
68
62
Industry 4.0 is based on digital revolution
49
85
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly agree
Source: Result of the survey.
while 23.3% were not sure whether they had
heard the term. A large number of students, accounting for 31.8% had never heard the term.
In order to examine how much those students who had heard the term “Industry 4.0”
understood the revolution, respondents were
asked to show their agreement on 8 statements
of major technological trends of Industry 4.0.
The statements were about 3D printing, Big
data and AI, IoT, and blockchain and they are
exactly true. The answers are presented in Figure 1. According to the figure, students seemed
not to be sure about the wearable internet. Less
than 50% of those surveyed thought there will
be wearable internet. For other technological
achievements, about 30% of the respondents
were not sure about whether there will be such
Journal of Economics and Development
143
technologies. Thus, even though there were 199
students hearing the term Industry 4.0, about
30% of them did not fully understand about the
revolution.
The result of the interviews revealed that
some students seemed to be surprised when
asked about technological trends of Industry
4.0. Among 20 interviewees, 14 said they had
heard the term Industry 4.0 on television, radio
or through the internet. However, they were not
familiar with these trends. Among 14 students,
half thought Industry 4.0 was about the information technology revolution and almost all
about the internet; three thought the revolution
may be about social networks like Facebook
and Twitter. After listening to the explanation
of Industry 4.0, students seemed to be surprised
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Figure 2: Students’ assessment of Industry 4.0’s impact on their future of job
Sample of 443 students
Not impact
at all
2.3%
Sample of 199 students
Not impact
2.5% Neutral
12.9%
Strongly
impact
33.9%
Not
impact
at all
0.0%
Strongly
impact
43.7%
Impact
48.5%
Not
impact
1.5%
Neutral
9.0%
Impact
45.7%
Source: Result of the survey.
about the revolution. The finding is somewhat
similar to the previous research conducted by
Nguyen et al. (2017) . According to them, about
40% of 228 surveyed students had never heard
the term Industry 4.0 and only 30% of them
seemed to understand about the revolution.
4.3. Students’ assessment of the revolution’s impact on their future job
Both questionnaires in the direct survey and
for interview had a short explanation about the
characteristics and technological trends of Industry 4.0. After understanding the revolution,
students were asked about their expectations of
the impact of Industry 4.0 on their future job.
Table 2 shows students’ assessment of the revolution’s impacts. There are two samples, the
first is 443 observations, the total sample of the
study and the second consists of 199 students −
those had heard the term Industry 4.0.
Approximately 82% of the 443 students beJournal of Economics and Development
144
lieved the revolution would have an impact or
even a strong impact on their future job while
89.4% had heard the term before. Especially,
no one who had heard the term Industry 4.0
thought the revolution would not impact their
future job at all. There is a slight difference in
the two samples (Figure 2).
The result of the interviews revealed that
among the 20 interviewees, 14 students believed their job in the future would be affected
by the revolution. When being asked about how
the revolution would affect their job, these students thought the way they work would change,
especially the way they contact with others and
exchange information during work time. Three
even believed that they could mainly work
at home. Four interviewees, those who were
studying economics and business management
said they were interested in starting up a business in the future and they thought the busiVol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Figure 3: Students’ assessment of importance of qualification and skills (sample of 443 students)
Soft skills
144
180
Software
150
178
Information technology
210
132
English
239
116
Knowledge of studying field
162
146
0%
Not important at all
10%
20%
30%
40%
Not important
Neutral
50%
60%
70%
Important
80%
90% 100%
Very important
Source: Result of the survey.
ness they would choose to start-up and the way
they would run that business may change. Six
students were not sure whether the revolution
would have an impact on their job in the future.
Figure 3 and 4 show how students evaluated the level of importance of qualifications and
skills. Qualifications and four skills including
English, information technology, using soft-
Figure 4: Students’ assessment of importance of qualification and skills (sample of 199 students)
Soft skills
81
69
Software
97
60
Information technology
102
61
English
115
54
Knowledge of studying field
78
73
0%
Not important at all
10%
20%
30%
Not important
40%
Neutral
50%
60%
Important
70%
80%
90% 100%
Very important
Source: Result of the survey.
Journal of Economics and Development
145
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
ware, and ten soft skills were mentioned. There
was not much difference between the students’
assessment in the two samples mentioned previously.
4.4. Students’ self-assessment
Students’ currents capabilities were evaluated in three aspects of information technology skill, English and 10 soft skills. Regarding
evaluation of the information technology skill,
students were asked about their level of agreement on 7 statements. Through their level of
agreement on the statements, their current IT
skills were examined. The result of the survey
is presented in Figure 5.
More than 70% of the students in the two
samples thought that knowledge of their studying field would be important for their job in
the future, under the revolution’s impact. Conversely, about 10% thought it would not be important for them. For students’ attitude toward
the 10 soft skills, English, using software and
information technology skills seemed not to be
different. About 80% thought these skills were
important for their job in the future, especially
English. Approximately 85% of the students
believed English was important and only 5%
thought it was not important for their job in the
future.
Regarding Figure 5, a small proportion
(3.6%) of surveyed students revealed that they
were not familiar with working with Microsoft Word as they could not create and edit a
Word file. Approximately 84% of them said
they could create a Word file. Regarding PowerPoint and Excel software, about 77.6% and
67.7% of respondents could create and manage
Figure 5: Students’ information technology skills
Can run software(s)/ program(s)
49
Often use smartphone to access internet
102
Have social network account
283
122
Often access internet
281
152
Create an Excel document
233
134
Create a PPT document
114
Create a Word document
33
166
230
114
268
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Neutral
Agree
Strongly agree
Source: Result of the survey.
Journal of Economics and Development
146
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
a PowerPoint file and Excel file, respectively.
Through interviews, students said that because
they have to complete a lot of assignments they
were familiar with working with some Microsoft Office software such as Microsoft Word,
Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel.
Among these, Microsoft Word is used the most
to write essays. Microsoft PowerPoint is often
used for presentations. Students said that they
hardly ever use Microsoft Excel for assignments as it is not necessary.
The majority of surveyed students often
accessed the internet for updating news and
searching data. 385 students revealed that
they often accessed the internet, accounting
for 86.9%. Less than 3% of students did not
often access the internet. The number of students who often use a smart phone to access
the internet was also 385. It may be that most of
the students who often access the internet use
a smart phone for connecting. 19 interviewees
said they often accessed the internet, among
them, 15 used a smartphone whereas the rest
use personal computers.
The majority of surveyed students had a digital presence on the internet. Among the 443
respondents, approximately 91% of the respondents had a social network account like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube,
or Instagram. The result of interviews showed
that 17 interviewees participated in social media network. Among them, 4 even had three
accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
and 3 had two accounts on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook seems to be the most popular social network for students. Interviewees
said they read Facebook every day. They even
use Facebook for discussion when complet-
Figure 6: Students’ English skill
Previous term preformance
72
29
IELTS
56
TOEIC
22 6
0%
20%
40%
<400; ≤ 4.5; <5
400-600; 5.0-5.5; 5-6.9
785-900; 7.0-7.5; 8.0-8.9
905-990; 8.0-9.0; 9.0-10
Journal of Economics and Development
147
60%
80%
100%
605-780; 6.0-6.5; 7.0-7.9
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
Figure 7: Students’ 10 soft skills
Cognitive flexibility
Service orientation
Judgment and decision making
Emotional intelligence
Coordinating with others
People management
Critical thinking
Creativity
Complex problem solving
Negotiation
0%
10%
Very poor
20%
30%
Not good
40%
Fair
50%
Good
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Very good
Source: Result of the survey.
ing assignments. One student even said that it
was not easy to give up using Facebook as her
classmates often post class announcements on
a Facebook page. Even though the percentage
of students having a digital presence was high,
the majority of them did not pay attention to
understanding and using software such as ERP,
FAST, etc. Nearly two thirds of the surveyed
students revealed that they could not use any
software such as ERP, FAST, MISA, etc.
Among the 443 surveyed students, 102 had
bought a product and or service online. They
bought such products or service as hotel booking, reserving a table in a restaurant, buying
movie tickets, buying online courses, booking
Uber or Grab car, paying communication fee
by applications such as Momo, buying entertainment games via the internet, etc. Interviewees said it was easy and convenient for them to
Journal of Economics and Development
148
make transactions via the internet.
Figure 6 shows the English ability of the surveyed students. In general, their English was
not good. More than 60% of the respondents
thought their English was at a level of an IELTS
score of less than 4.0. 85.3% thought their English was at the level of an IELTS score less
than 6.0. Approximately 2.5% thought they
had at least a 7.0 score. With regard to students’
previous term performance, 22.8% had results
equal to or higher than an 8.0 score.
Results of the interviews revealed that students said they focused a lot on English writing
and reading but not on conversational English.
As a result, they could write but found it difficult to speak English. Although in a university
where there are some English clubs, only three
interviewees said they participated in such
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
a club for practicing English. Others went to
class outside university for learning. Some students expressed that they did not find enough
motivation to learn English in their university.
Students were required to evaluate their soft
skills. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2020, Industry 4.0 will have brought
people some remarkable technological advancements such as advanced robotics and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and
machine learning, advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics and this advancement
will change the way we live and the way we
work. The top ten necessary skills will change.
Figure 7 shows students’ self- assessment of
the 10 skills.
Regarding Figure 7, students seemed to be
neutral when assessing their soft skills. The
majority of surveyed students thought their
soft skills were fair. Among the 10 skills, they
seemed not to be good in service orientation,
negotiation and people management. Less than
11% of the sample thought they were good in
service orientation whereas more than 30%
thought they were not good in this skill. Likewise, about 11% and 13% of the surveyed
students supposed they were good in negotiation and in people management, respectively.
The percentage of respondents who thought
they were not good in negotiation and people
management, in turn, was 25.5% and 20.3%.
Students’ thoughts of their other skills seemed
more positive. For example, more than 28%
thought they were good whereas about 13% assumed they were not good in coordinating with
others.
However, the result seems not to have very
much reliability since results of interviews reJournal of Economics and Development
149
vealed that students did not understand clearly
about these skills. For example, even though
approximately 26% of the students believed
they were good in emotional intelligence, 12
out of 20 interviewees could not explain the
meaning of emotional intelligence. Likewise,
about 28% of the surveyed students supposed
they were good in cognitive flexibility but 13
out of the 20 interviewees did not understand
this skill. Five interviewees pointed out that
some of the skills like cognitive flexibility, service orientation, emotional intelligence, critical
thinking, and creativity seem difficult to understand for them.
Finally, students expressed how they expected education and training institutions to
help them in improving their capabilities.
There were 330 ideas about that. Regarding
knowledge, 67 students pointed out that training quality should be improved by enhancing
the quality of teachers and materials, applying
a learner centered teaching approach and updating training programs to be more practical,
etc. Students particularly focused on promoting internship and inviting guest speakers to
class. Relating to English, 90 students mentioned the quality of English teachers should
be improved, English native speakers should
be invited to class, more specialized courses or
even conferences in English should be opened
and requirements of graduates in terms of English should be increased, etc. With regard to
IT skills, 74 students expected that they could
develop their IT skills if the institutions opened
more courses, conferences and even competitions on IT, upgraded IT infrastructure such
as computer networks or imported simulation
software or games. IT should be applied more
Vol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
in conducting courses, for example, students
should be given assignment like writing blogs
or Facebook or take exams on computers. In
addition, requirements of graduate in terms of
IT skill should also be increased. In regard to
soft skills, students expected universities to
open courses on soft skills for them or embed
soft skills in specialized courses.
5. Conclusions and Implications
As mentioned previously, if students have
knowledge of Industry 4.0 (especially major
technologies and their applications), and its expected influences on the future of jobs, leading
to new skills required by labour, they will have
the intention of acquiring the required knowledge and skills. Effort should be made to improve students’ awareness and capabilities in
terms of professional knowledge, IT skill, English and soft skills.
Although it is supposed that people should
be aware of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s
impacts on their occupation in order to prepare
for reacting to it, about 45% of the surveyed students had heard the term Industry 4.0. Among
them, approximately 30% did not clearly understand the revolution. Some students were
surprised at the technological trends of Industry 4.0. They thought the revolution was about
information technology and almost only about
the internet.
Students seem familiar with virtual life as
more than 90% of respondents had a digital
presence on internet and 102 of them had used
online services. Nearly 100% of the students
who frequently accessed the internet used a
mobile phone for accessing network. 18.5% of
the respondents revealed they could run (some)
software and/ or programs.
Journal of Economics and Development
150
Students’ English and soft skills seem not
good. Although they believed English was important to their future job, more than 60% of
surveyed students supposed their English was
at a level of less than 4.0 IELTS points. Students seemed not good in service orientation,
negotiation and people management skills.
In order to create a skilled and qualified labor force, higher education and training institutions should pay attention to the points below:
- Promote students’ awareness of Industry
4.0 through communication. As mentioned
previously, the proportion of students who had
heard the term Industry 4.0 seem to be more
proactive in preparing for meeting requirements of jobs in the future than the rest. If we
increase students’ awareness, hopefully, there
will be an improvement of students’ competencies.
- Improve students’ IT skills. More information technology courses should be added to
training programs. Students should be required
to take some online courses. Institutions should
also assure there is sufficient equipment for IT
learning. They should promote the use of information and communication technologies
(ICT) tools in teaching and learning processes e.g. More courses should be opened online.
Reward and recognition should be provided
to recognize teachers and students with good
knowledge and skills in ICT. It might be done
through competition or movement.
- Focus on English. Specialized courses
should be conducted in English. The quality
of English teachers should be improved. More
English clubs should be opened. English native
speakers should be invited to classes so that
students can have more opportunities to pracVol. 21, Special Issue, 2019
tise English.
- Improve teachers’ capability. Not only IT
and English teachers should be paid attention
but also teachers of professional subjects. All
of them should be trained on pedagogy, subject
mastery, management skills and the use of various teaching tools, especially ICT tools. Periodic training should be provided for teachers so
they can update and master the subject.
- Enhance cooperation between training institutions and organizations. Higher education
and training institutions should try to cooperate
with organizations that recruit graduates in order to better understand about human resource
demand, so that they can conduct training programs not to alienate the workers.
In addition to the above, students themselves
also have to be proactive in improving their
knowledge and skills for thriving in the future.
Students should have good knowledge about
their field, professional English and good IT
and soft skills.
This research has two limitations. At first,
since the number of Vietnamese students all
over Vietnam is large, the sample size of 443
students is small. Secondly, Vietnamese students’ awareness of Industry 4.0 was assessed
through descriptive data. If the relationship, if
any, between their awareness and preparation
to react to Industry 4.0 was identified, the result
would be better.
Acknowledgement:
This paper was supported by State- level Project KX04.13, National Economics University.
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